"Hunger Games"

"Hunger Games" - have you heard of it?  Probably not, it's a pretty obscure book series that has been turned into a movie.  

I guess it WAS pretty obscure when I first dove into it.  Brayden's fifth grade teacher chose to read it aloud to the class and I got hooked on the days I was in there to listen.  I ended up downloading all three of the books to listen to while I worked out.  In hindsight, I think I would have actually enjoyed them more if I'd read them at my own pace, vs. listening to a narrator, but, to be honest, I'm not sure they would have held enough appeal on their own for me to choose to pick the book up vs. have it distract me from the agony joy of working out.

As soon as they talked about turning it into a movie, I was definitely intrigued - and as the process went on, I felt like they did an ideal job in their casting choices.  As previews began to show, I found myself more and more excited to see the film - even deliberating for just a few seconds about making it to a midnight showing.   (Sanity won out).

The plan was to go as a "Schitely Family" (minus probably John and Travis who weren't that interested) next Saturday.  But Brayden screwed that up by proclaiming (yes, you read that correctly, it was not presented with a request, just a proclamation....grrr....) that he'd be seeing the movie with 4 buddies from school on Friday night.  My feelings were a bit hurt, but I rebounded valiantly by being the "cool mom" with the "Swagger Wagon" (yes, the back windows do really roll down, Solomon!) to take the group of them to the movies, while John picked them up.

As a revenge, Stephie, Mikayla, and I chose to go see the movie on Saturday, while Brayden was enlisted to help John on a variety of household improvement chores.  (Ha ha!!!).   I was a little concerned taking Mikayla, but had a pretty good idea on when to tell her to shut her eyes, and she REALLY, REALLY, REALLY did not want to be left out.

Stephie and I LOVED it!  (And, Mikayla was not at all traumatized and glad she went).  In my opinion, one of the best books-turned-into-a-movie I've ever seen.  The casting was spot on, and as far as taking my imagination into reality - for the most part, it was perfect (and perhaps improved upon, as I felt the violence and gore in the books was far more intense than that of the movie).   I would be more than eager to see it again with the Schillings (if they still wanted our company after betraying them) - and am definitely looking forward to seeing the upcoming sequels.

To put the icing on the cake, one of the previews offered a very cryptic hint of March 29th, 2013's release of:

Oh yeah!!!  We already told Travis he'd be on baby duty that day, as Michele, Steph, and I will SO BE THERE to see that one.  This is a novel written by Stephenie Meyer (another obscure writer....you might recognize her name from a young adult series about vampires....."Twilight" or something like that.... =)  ).  Anyway, we all loved the book and have eagerly been waiting for a sequel, but hey, promise of the movie adaptation will have to do.

Indeed, a wonderful early afternoon of entertainment - and honestly, one of the most crowded movie theater's I've been in in a while.  I think this movie intends to break a few box office records...

P.S. - I just got finished reading Jenny B. Jones' blog and this post that had me laughing out loud about tips for attending midnight movie showings.  Seriously, one of my most beloved authors, not only of books, but her blog as well.  =)